Original Airdate: 10/22/2009
Toonami Airdate: 10/22/2016
So last episode of Shippuden was a pretty good episode that had Jiraiya’s Sage Mode Transformation in the pretty meh second half. We’re on to the next one and hopefully it won’t be one where there is a bunch of nonsense involving toads complaining, right? RIGHT? … Yeah, you can probably see where this is going. On to the recap.
The Pains are here, and there are 3 of them. The one they were fighting with the pony tail, another long hair one without a pony tail, and a big Pain. They don’t know how there are 3 of them. Could be cause of some jutsu. So now that they’re here, they will get all of their attention, right? WRONG!! Shima, the female toad, complains about how she’s gonna make dinner instead of focusing on the 3 enemies. Just. Why?! Jiraiya is ready to fight the 3, but he yells too much, and gets punched by the toads. Shima then want to wrap it up quick, and the couple argue some more over this and dinner preparations.
Pain attacks and Jiraiya kicks him away, as the two toads stop arguing. They work together and use “Sage Arts: Bath of Boiling Oil”. It creates a tsunami of mud, oil and fire that gets launched at Pain. However, the attack fails, as they see the oil all vanished from there with the big guy standing in the center of it. Jiraiya discards his sandals, and gets on all fours like a frog, and goes all out. He uses the Massive Rasengan on the big Pain. And that’s where he learns where the oil from the last attack went. The big Pain absorbed it, like he does with the Massive Rasengan.
As Pain attacks again, Jiraiya uses a smoke bomb and attacks from the blind side of the long hair Pain. The big guy sees it, and long hair Pain blocks the attack. Pony tail Pain releases more animals, and as Jiraiya uses his needle hair attack, the panda animal he released blocks it. He can see they’re really precise with everything, and blocked two of Jiraiya’s attacks, even his hair attack which is so fast and powerful, only a shield could do it. The toads point out that Jiraiya still hasn’t seen the Pain’s trick. Even though the 3 aren’t communicating, they saw the big guy watching Jiraiya’s moves, so they think they are using the Rinnegan together to share what’s going on. Not only that, Jiraiya’s ninjutsu is being nullified, so even in Sage Mode, he will be killed by them. They retreat into the pipes to form a plan (Even if the stupid female toad wonders why they’re doing this.)
As they still run, they ponder what they know: All 3 Pains possess the Rinnegan. There are 3 of them, so fighting them is gonna be (no pun intended) a pain. And the one thing they don’t know is who is the real Pain. But Fukasaku goes back to the 3 sharing images with the Rinnegan. It’s like a security camera system (which, I guess they do have in the Naruto world? And the frogs know about them?) where it can show different images at the same time, and all 3 of them know what is going on with only one of them needing to watch. Plus, unlike the Byakugan, it can guard their blind spots. To win, they must fight the Pains 1-on-1. This won’t be easy to split them up, not only cause ninjutsu and taijutsu don’t work on them, but only genjutsu will, and Jiraiya doesn’t know any genjutsu. But the frog couple knows genjutsu. Only one problem: Shima doesn’t want to do it, and the two bicker over it. Why doesn’t Lady Frog want to do it? Because it’s embarrassing singing a song duet with her husband. Uggghhhhhhh. And yes, the genjutsu is in the form of a song duet. It’s a powerful one, but once heard, it will have the enemy know where they are. They’ll have to do this quickly, but when the foe gets caught in the genjutsu, there will be no escape from it. Jiraiya tells the old frogs that if they’re in danger, he wants them to get free from his shoulders. He has a plan, but it’s a big gamble.
With the Pains coming, the toads begin their song. Which is a really, REALLY bad sound. It gets one of the Pains on-guard, and he hears their croaking coming from the room nearby. They enter and attack, but the Jiraiya they get is a Shadow Clone. He uses Giant Flame Bomb, which the big Pain goes after to absorb. His gamble paid off, and he now knows the Pains can only use one ability. Since he blinded the long hair Pain earlier, the Summoning one is all that’s left, who Jiraiya gets in a 1-on-1 fight and wins it. The Pains are now in a Genjutsu Paralysis. They didn’t expect this from Jiraiya at all. As there’s another useless flashback, Jiraiya wishes that Nagato did something else to create peace than this. And after another flashback, Jiraiya stabs all 3 Pains, ending the fight.
As they leave, the toads tell him how the genjutsu they used is hard on their throats, and can even damage their jaws by how wide they open them. But as Jiraiya made his selection on who he now knows is the prophecy kid, he lets his guard down. Another Pain appears, and sends him outside through an explosion of the building. Shima wonders if he’s okay. Well, is he?
Yeah, his arm is gone, but that’s not the worst of it. The new Pain not only appears, but pulled out the blade in the 3 dead ones. Now they’re alive again, are join by this new one, another new Pain, and the original Pain we already know. These are the Six Paths of Pain. In fact, Pain was just a name and refers to them all as a group. As Jiraiya wonders how the 3 he just killed were brought back, he looks at the first Pain, and now realizes who he is.
This episode was a really mixed bag. It had some good action, it did have some great reveals, especially at the end with the 6 Pains. This also had the troublesome stuff as well. Too much talking, the flashbacks we don’t need to see again, and the worst of it: annoying toads. Seriously, you are dealing with a 3 superninjas with freaky eyes who could kill you, -and all you can think of is DINNER?!?! And their constant back-and-forth arguing just made it worst. I know it’s suppose to add to the dynamic, but it’s just too annoying. All of them are annoying. Why do we have to deal with these assholes? Oh yeah, cause it’s part of the damn plot. I hate these things, and it did lose some points on this episode. At least the Genjutsu wasn’t the Froggy Song. That would’ve driven me insane. 1.5 Croaking Song Duets/5.
Speaking of songs, alot of you have been clamoring for Toonami to play the 6th Opening. Well, they (or more specifically, Viz) won’t do it. But hey, I will for ya.
The song, “Flow”, is actually one of my favorite Shippuden OPs too. And while I know it sucks we can’t see it, but just suck it up and deal with it like I do. I just felt like sharing this OP with you because I wanted too. And because those frogs pissed me off, and this is better than them. Anyway, see ya again in November as the Gundam IBO marathon is this Halloween weekend.
[swim squad] 